{"product_id":"2940013668409","title":"Richard Of Bordeaux","description":"In choosing the subject of Richard II, Gordon Daviot was at once bold and\u003cbr\u003ewise: wise, because a dramatic pose was second nature to Richard and his\u003cbr\u003ereign is essentially a drama; bold, because she inevitably challenged\u003cbr\u003ecomparison with Shakespeare. Not only did she have a story that lent\u003cbr\u003eitself readily to dramatic situations, but she had at least one advantage\u003cbr\u003eover Shakespeare in that modern historical writings have added\u003cbr\u003econsiderably to our understanding of the reign. Shakespeare's play covers\u003cbr\u003ethe last three years of Richard's reign; Gordon Daviot realizes that\u003cbr\u003ethose last three years are continuous with the past, and are merely the\u003cbr\u003eculmination of a drama the first act of which was played long years\u003cbr\u003ebefore. In the last act of his play Shakespeare makes a despairing effort\u003cbr\u003eto enlist sympathy for an unlikeable Richard; Gordon Daviot's play\u003cbr\u003ethroughout shows us a king, of whom a modern historian [Vickers.\u003cbr\u003e_England in the later Middle Ages_.] has written \"his principles were,\u003cbr\u003eas far as we can gather, generous and his career suggests a sympathy for\u003cbr\u003ethe poor at every turn.\" The great charm of her play is that she\u003cbr\u003ere-creates for us, not a crowned and temperamental poet as Shakespeare\u003cbr\u003edoes, but a high-spirited, very human boy, with something of the\u003cbr\u003eundergraduate about him, developing into an earnest man, heart-broken it\u003cbr\u003eis true, but with a high sense of his responsibility, a Richard, in fact,\u003cbr\u003ewho may be the authentic Richard of history. \"I warn you,\" Richard says\u003cbr\u003ein the first scene, \"I shall be intolerable to him,\" to which Anne\u003cbr\u003eanswers, \"You know that when the time comes you will be charming to\u003cbr\u003ehim\"--a suggestion that the success which Richard won before 1399, a\u003cbr\u003esuccess that it has often bothered historians to explain, may have been\u003cbr\u003edue to that indefinable charm which is the happy possession of a few, and\u003cbr\u003ewhich might have been Richard's salvation had his lot chanced to be cast\u003cbr\u003ein less difficult times. When one has seen the play, no scenes linger\u003cbr\u003elonger in the memory than those, such as the scenes with the Queen or the\u003cbr\u003eclosing scene with Maudelyn, in which his warm-hearted attractiveness is\u003cbr\u003econspicuously exerted. All his \"princely gifts\"--to misquote\u003cbr\u003eLancaster--are in this play the personal beauty for which he was known,\u003cbr\u003ehis love of beautiful things, which lifted him above such rude\u003cbr\u003econtemporaries as Gloucester and Arundel, his undoubted ability, and love\u003cbr\u003eof peace, his happy home-life, and his sympathy with the under-dog, even\u003cbr\u003ethose furious gusts of passion which are his best-known characteristic,\u003cbr\u003eand in one of which he felled Arundel to the ground for arriving late at\u003cbr\u003ethe Queen's funeral--we have them all. Historically, the play stands or\u003cbr\u003efalls by its delineation of Richard: his success and then his fall have\u003cbr\u003eto be made credible. Shakespeare made his fall credible by depicting him\u003cbr\u003eas weak and incapable; the success of Shakespeare's Richard is\u003cbr\u003eincredible. It is harder to see why Gordon Daviot's Richard fails, but if\u003cbr\u003eyou look for it you will find it in the corrupting effect of success:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Canterbury...What is destroying Richard, my lord, is something more\u003cbr\u003epotent than his enemies. Success. Remember this, Henry of Lancaster, in\u003cbr\u003edays to come: it is not the possession of power that offends the\u003cbr\u003emultitude but the flaunting of it. You may have all earth for your\u003cbr\u003efootstool if you refrain from prodding it with your toe.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd again, \"He holds England in his two hands and laughs like a wicked\u003cbr\u003echild and men pause and hold their breath.\" The Richard of history\u003cbr\u003eboasted that the laws of England resided in his own breast and treated\u003cbr\u003ehis subjects' possessions as if they were his own. \"Anne might have\u003cbr\u003ecounselled differently.\" Anne's death is the turning-point of the play:\u003cbr\u003eafter it Richard talks \"savagely\" or \"bitterly,\" \"wearily\" or \"in pain.\"\u003cbr\u003eHe is still the same gentle Richard to his friends but the savour has\u003cbr\u003egone out of his triumph and he, who always posed a little, now that he\u003cbr\u003ehas no Anne to correct him, rejoices in the display of his power.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180797673712,"sku":"2940013668409","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013668409_p0.jpg?v=1763584231","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013668409","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}